Week #1 update:
99% sure BRS shipped the Dr.Tims I was using for cycling during the mega cold snap we had in Ohio and quite possibly froze. BRS should have some warning that you're ticking 52.00 away if you order when it's super cold...end of rant.
ordered 2 bottles od BIO-Spyra from
amazon..added one in case I was wrong about the Dr. Tims in 24 hours went from 2.0 ammonia to .8 in 24 hours and from .8 to .4 in 24 hours almost the same results for the next 24 hours so I now assume the Tims was bad and added the other bottle of Bio-Spyra I ordered...will evaluate again tomorrow
made what might be a rookie mistake or just my luck...ATO was low so I added water and filled it...did not notice that outlet hose on the ATO was lower than the max fill height of the ATO tank so the first call for water after I left the house created a siphon and pulled enough extra water into the return to set the high limit float switch on the Tunze. Needless to say, my wife called me about the beeping coming from the fish tank...and I had to return home.
next rookie mistake...kept trying to dip the red probe of the apex into the salinity test pouch for calibration...it would not calibrate...I'm 52 I forget occasionally the black is salinity..thanks google. No problems calibrating after that.
On a positive, my chaeto is growing nicely in my fuge and with all the ammonia dosing and the partial bacteria culturing my nitrates are very low I assume it's pushing the chaeto along and working together.
Still, need to get the cable management done this next week along with setting up the dos pumps for the triton core 7 ...I have enjoyed using the Apex on my Ipad while I enjoy my coffee in the morning. The hobby has come so far from hang on the back skilters and coralux fluorescent lights and maybe having one animal in your reef that was over a year old.
will add a picture of the super sloppy refugium in the morning...peace, love, and reefing
